Commuters die in subway fire

Author

Website Name

Year Published

Title

URL

Access Date

Publisher

A+E Networks

A fire in a London subway station kills 30 commuters and injures scores of others on this day in 1987. It is the worst fire in the history of the city’s underground rail system.

The King’s Cross station in London is one of the city’s busiest; it contains two terminals and is at the intersection of several subway lines. Late on a Wednesday afternoon, people began to smell smoke coming from beneath one of the station’s escalators. Even though several people reported the smell to station employees, no action was taken. At 7:50 p.m., flames were spotted beneath the escalator.

By that time, it was too late. Smoke filled the station as the fire quickly spread, leaving no clear path of escape. The London Fire Brigade arrived to find general chaos and panic; they were also faced with what one witness described as a “shock wave of fire.” The heat level rose rapidly since the fire was trapped far below street level.

One firefighter, Colin Townley, and 30 commuters died in this catastrophic fire. Another 80 people were hospitalized. It was later revealed that debris and grease had built up under the escalator, but the exact cause of ignition is unknown. It may have simply been caused by a discarded cigarette. Sir Keith Bright, the chairman of the London Regional Transport, and Tony Ridley, chairman of the London Underground, both resigned their posts in the aftermath, taking responsibility for the negligent maintenance said to be the prime cause of the fire. In addition, the equivalent of $465 million dollars was spent on safety improvements.

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Also on this day

Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years of captivity. Waite, looking thinner and his hair grayer, was freed along with American educator Thomas M. Sutherland after intense negotiations by the United Nations.
Waite, special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, had secured...

In honor of Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen, who had stormed the post five days earlier, British Commander in Chief General William Howe renames Fort Washington “Fort Knyphausen” on this day in 1776.
Knyphausen and a force of 3,000 Hessian mercenaries and 5,000 Redcoats had laid siege to Fort Washington at...

On this day in 1996, a revolutionary new Volkswagen factory opens in Resende, Brazil. The million-square-meter Resende factory did not have an ordinary assembly line staffed by Volkswagen workers: In fact, the only people on Volkswagen’s payroll were the quality-control supervisors. Independent subcontractors were responsible for putting together every part...

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to deliver a short speech at the dedicationof a cemetery of soldiers killed during the battle there on July 1 to July 3, 1863. The address Lincoln gave in Gettysburg became one of the most famous...

After nearly a year of hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal, the joint Congressional investigating committee issues its final report. It concluded that the scandal, involving a complicated plan whereby some of the funds from secret weapons sales to Iran were used to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista...

Tony Silva, a world-renowned expert and outspoken protector of exotic birds, is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling operation. Silva was only one of many to be arrested during “Operation Renegade,” a three-year international probe into bird smuggling by the U.S. Fish...

Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, calls off the Battle of the Somme in France after nearly five months of mass slaughter.The massive Allied offensive began at 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916, when 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into...

On this day in 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch while others were forced to do so...

On this day in 2006, the actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are married in a Church of Scientology ceremony at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Lake Bracciano, Italy. A number of the Hollywood super-couple’s celebrity friends were in attendance, including Will and Jada Smith, Brooke Shields, Victoria Beckham, Jim...

On this day, Alice McDermott beats out front-runner Tom Wolfe for the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy, losing a bet with her children.
McDermott felt she was so unlikely to win the award that she told her three children she’d give them whatever they wanted if she won:...

At just 16, William Martin Joel of Hicksville, Long Island, got his first taste of chart success playing piano on the Shangri-Las’ #1 hit “Leader of the Pack,”. At 18, he dropped out of high school to pursue a full-time career as a professional musician. After several years moving from...

At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies.
The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems...

On this day in 1886, former President Chester Alan Arthur succumbs to complications from a debilitating and fatal kidney ailment known as Bright’s Disease. In the words of former President Rutherford B. Hayes, Arthur’s term as president was most notable for “liquor, snobbery and worse.” Although he had been ambitious...

On November 18, 1966, Sandy Koufax, the ace pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, retires from baseball. He was just 30 years old, and he was retiring after a great season–he’d led the Dodgers to a National League pennant and won his third Cy Young award. But he had chronic...

In the largest air assault of the war thus far, 116 U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft fly 1,100 South Vietnamese troops into Binh Duong and Tay Ninh Provinces to attack what is believed to be a major communist stronghold. General Nguyen Khanh personally directed the operation, but the troops...

Sixty South Vietnamese men are killed or wounded when their troops clash with communist forces in the Mekong Delta. The North Vietnamese lost only 14 men. A South Vietnamese spokesman said that the high South Vietnamese casualties were “due to bad fighting on our part.” The battle...

President Nixon asks Congress for supplemental appropriations for the Cambodian government of Premier Lon Nol. Nixon requested $155 million in new funds for Cambodia—$85 million of which would be for military assistance, mainly in the form of ammunition. He also asked for an additional $100 million to restore...

On this day in 1916, British Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig calls a halt to his army’s offensive near the Somme River in northwestern France, ending the epic Battle of the Somme after more than four months of bloody conflict.
With the French under heavy siege at Verdun since February,...

On this day in 1940, Adolf Hitler meets with Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano over Mussolini’s disastrous invasion of Greece.
Mussolini surprised everyone with a move against Greece; his ally, Hitler, was caught off guard, especially since the Duce had led Hitler to believe he had no such intention. Even Mussolini’s...